Page 35 of On the Ropes
“I think I can do that,” she said. “What do you think of our progress? We’ve got one bag down, literally billions to go probably.”
Eddie gave us that same crooked smile, like he was seconds away from mischief. “I’m impressed, you two. Why don’t I round up whoever else is around on a Saturday, see if they wanna help?”
“That would be nice, thank you,” I said. As he walked over to Natalia and Martín’s house, Tabitha looked giddy.
“It’s a beautiful morning for a neighborhood cleanup day,” she said. “Oh man, this is so exciting, isn’t it?” She hurled a ball of trash into the bag with a swish. “Is this how you thought you’d be spending your Saturday? Gettin’ wild with garbage?”
I leaned on the shovel. “If I wasn’t doing this, then probably a baseball game with Rowan and some of his coworkers. Or out for a couple beers. Maybe help my mothers with their pretty demanding house projects.” I glued my eyes to the ground as I twisted the tip of the shovel back and forth. “Used to be Saturday nights were fight nights. If not mine, then someone else’s. I’m not as welcome in those spaces as I used to be. Not at the bars after either.”
Tabitha pressed her lips together. “Because you retired and people are still mad about it?”
“Memories are long here. Tempers are short,” I said.
She made a sound of agreement followed by a breathless oof sound. When I looked up, she was attempting to lift a heavy, water-logged box. I closed the distance between us and took the box gently from her hands. I hid a grimace, not wanting Tabitha to see. It wasn’t that heavy, but the space between my shoulder blades lit up with pain, the echoes of past muscle tears and a rotator cuff injury that had never quite healed right. Whenever I found myself missing boxing the most, my body was more than happy to remind me of all it had endured.
“Oh, thanks so much,” she wheezed, blowing the hair from her face. “I swear it looked lighter on the ground before I tried to valiantly lift it. I tend to leap without looking, as my sister always says. Too impulsive.”
I hefted the box into the bag. “Rowan would say I overthink everything. That I’m too restrained and never have any fun. I never leap because I look too long.”
Tabitha tapped her chin. Stared at me like I’d given her some award-winning idea. “That’s an interesting concept.”
“What is?”
“Hear me out. What if the two of us had some fun together this summer?”
Her hands in my hair. My mouth, hot and open on her slick skin. No thoughts, only pleasure.
“Sorry, what?” I was glad my voice didn’t crack like a middle schooler’s.
She stepped right up to me. “You and me. Having some spontaneous, impulsive, unrestrained fun. Fuck all the people who took your Saturday nights away from you. They suck, and if you pointed any of them out to me, I’d dump a pitcher of beer all over their heads.”
I rubbed the back of my head, torn between amusement and hesitation.
“If you need a friend to help you out with this”—she indicated the hanging row of trash bags—“then I need a friend to enjoy Philly with while I’m home for the next two weeks. Getting water ice at John’s. Eating a cheesesteak like a tourist. Running up the Rocky steps at the art museum, something I’m sure you’re quite good at, Mr. Machine.”
I laughed. Her enthusiasm was contagious. “I’m…sufficient at that, yeah.”
“Sufficient?” She whistled under her breath. “Okay, I’m amending my statement. You and me? We’re racing to the top of the Rocky steps now. And don’t think I’m letting you off the hook for dancing.”
I gazed around at the garbage nightmare we were standing in. “I do owe you for agreeing to do this with me.”
“You don’t owe me a thing, and I would help you regardless. But if it makes it feel fair to you, we can do a work hard/play hard theme. This will be a worthy endeavor but a hell of a lot of work. I’ll make sure you intersperse it with some spontaneous joy.”
It was much too late to attempt a strategy of avoidance now. Because I’d underestimated my opponent, had let her sneak past my best defenses with charm and humor and a beauty that made my chest ache. I didn’t even need to anticipate the blow.
It had already happened.
She held out her hand. “Whaddya say, neighbor? We got a deal?”
I foolishly shook it.
“Deal,” I said.
